Opinion: It would be an honor to have 9/11 trail through Lehigh Valley

I encourage the mayors of Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Whitehall Township and Coplay to lobby to have the Sept. 11 National Memorial Trail for biking and hiking go through their communities.

The trail is being planned to go from the World Trade Center in New York City to the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Somerset County and to the Pentagon to memorialize those who lost their lives on 9/11. The route has been finalized through New Jersey. However, the route through Pennsylvania has not. One of many routes being considered would bring the trail through the Lehigh Valley.

This route makes historical sense since the trail would go past the former Bethlehem Steel plant, where steel for New York skyscrapers was manufactured; go through the new riverfront park under construction in Allentown, which is six blocks from Zion's United Church of Christ, where the Liberty Bell was hidden during the Revolutionary War; go past the Saylor Cement kilns in Coplay, where cement was first manufactured in the U.S. Since a portion of this route already has established trails, such as the Ironton Rail Trail and the D&L Trail, costs would be minimized.

Please do not miss this opportunity. It would be an honor to have this trail in the Lehigh Valley.